Influence: Animator and Muralist "Blu"

(image: left is a detail from a Blu mural, right is a psmith painting)I have just recently come upon the work of Blu. It's one of those rare circumstances where another artist is creating very similar images to your own, but neither of you are in contact or even know of each others work (albeit, Blu is certainly more widely known). The obvious thing i'm drawn to about his work is the way he builds larger configurations out of smaller, individual figures, and then puts these pieces in the public view, murals in his case(read importance of scale entry). But I also love the somewhat awkward rendering of his characters, it gives his pieces a level of uncertainty that suggests the outcome of his images are not clear, a brilliant way to be an observationalist (not a word, but you get my jist). after all, what is an observation other than a snippet of time, the result of which is unknown (perhaps predictable, but unknown). furthermore, his animation has that element of "people coming out of people" similar to what I explore in several of my films, especially my film "Drink"(image on right: Drink and a still from Blu's wall mural animation). Another aspect of Blu's work, outside of his murals, is his animation. He is constantly engaged in morphing and breaking apart his characters in a very unschooled(therefore untimed, but it works), raw, smooth, and playful way. Check out his work, most people only know this famous experimental piece of wall painted animation below.